58 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [July 29

city, especially as the officials are required to live in the precincts
they represent and the registration offices must be located within
their respective precincts.

None of these registration officials, whether Orthodox or Re-
formed, could serve at all on the first registration day, September
23, and no Jewish home could be used at all that day for registra-
tion purposes. On the remaining three days, no Orthodox Jew
would be permitted by his faith to serve as a registration official or
to use his home as a registration office, except after dark on the
nights of the second and fourth days.

These circumstances would make it practically impossible to
either have or man registration offices in a great many precincts on
any of the present registration days.

I have ascertained the general sentiment about an extra session
as well as I could. It is a tribute to the heritage which distinctly
belongs to our State that there has been but one expression from
non-Jews all over the State, namely, that the extra session should
be called in simple fairness to this large group of our people.

I am not, however, acting because of any demand or pressure
from any source. It is simply that I recognize an existing situa-
tion, have taken the time necessary to examine and appraise it
calmly and carefully,, and am convinced that fairness and justice
to the people affected require a remedy which only the Legisla-
ture can give.

I have taken steps to assure myself that the Legislature will
limit itself to this one subject, and that it can and will meet, pass
the necessary law, and adjourn all in one day.

The cost of a one day session of the Legislature as provided by
law would be something over $8,000 of which about $815 repre-
sents per diem for the members and desk officers (no employees
being needed), about $6,463 represents mileage, and the balance
would be for printing and binding the proceedings.

I recognize that this is an appreciable amount, but it is not
too much when weighed against the alternative of disfranchising
a large group of citizens, or when considered in the light of our
State's traditional policy of tolerance in all matters of religion.
Under the same circumstances the same consideration should and
would be given to any other group of Maryland people.